GAWAD LAB

Bacterial sepsis causes about 20% of global deaths annually. In collaboration with scientists and engineers from the IBM Innovation Labs in Almaden, we are developing a novel electronic nose system to detect diagnostic volatile organic compound signatures of bacterial sepsis from human samples. IBM has created a series of novel metal oxide gas sensors with high sensitivity, and have engineered a device to house the sensors, control flow of the incoming samples, and rapidly output a recording of the electrical signals. Although these sensors have the potential to provide extraordinarily high sensitivity, many of the signals are overlapping and nonspecific. Our lab is working to catalogue volatile organic compounds in blood that are specific to patients who have a bacterial bloodstream infection using mass spectrometry with the aim of identifying volatile biomarkers that can be amplified chemically and uniquely interact with the electronic nose system to produce a fast and inexpensive..

Primary location: Palo Alto United States